Victim in Theft, British Library Pushes for Tougher Sentence

By JAMES KINSELLA

The British Library, one of the institutions victimized by rare-map
thief E. Forbes Smiley 3rd of Chilmark, has urged the court to increase
the severity of his pending sentence.

The library, whose 1520 Apian world map was stolen by Mr. Smiley,
has called on U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton to sentence him to 78
to 97 months in prison. The government and the defense have agreed that
his sentence should range from 57 to 71 months.

The Apian map and the volume in which it was contained, the library
states, "remained intact surviving catastrophic events: the
execution of its owner and the disbursement of his property; civil war
and the ascendance of Oliver Cromwell; royal intrigue; times of economic
depression; and the Nazi bombing of London. The volume remained intact
until visited by Smiley."

The British Library, situated in London, is the national library of
the United Kingdom.

The library, in a victim impact statement it submitted, said it has
often been described as the steward of the DNA of civilization.
"Any loss to the British Library is thus veritably a loss to
humankind, including the United States," the library states.

Mr. Smiley, a dealer in antiquities who has admitted stealing 97
rare maps and documents from seven institutions between 1998 and 2005,
is scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. Sept. 27 in federal court in New
Haven, Conn.

Neither Mr. Smiley nor his attorney, Richard Reeve, could be reached
for comment on the library's sentencing memorandum.

In court last June, Mr. Smiley acknowledged going into the Beinecke
Library at Yale University in June 2005 and stealing one of those maps:
a 1578 rare map titled Vninersi Orbis, sevterreni glo. The theft of the
map, a piece of cultural heritage more than 100 years old and worth more
than $5,000, is a federal felony.

Following his arrest by Yale University police, Mr. Smiley
cooperated with the government with identifying maps and documents he
had stolen from the institutions.

Mr. Smiley also faces three felony larceny charges in state superior
court in New Haven, where he has acknowledged stealing three maps from
Yale: the sevterreni map; Typus Orbis Terranum, taken from the book
Principle Navigators, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation; and
a portrait of John Smith taken from a book titled Advertisement for the
Unexperienced Planters of New England or Anywhere. He is scheduled to be
sentenced in superior court Oct. 13.

The judge in the state case, the Hon. Richard Damiani, told Mr.
Smiley last June that he could be sentenced up to 60 years in prison
and/or fined $45,000. But Judge Damiani has said he was inclined to
sentence Mr. Smiley to five years in state prison for each count, though
the sentences would run concurrently and also concurrently with whatever
federal time he serves.

Institutions from which Mr. Smiley acknowledged stealing include The
New York Public Library, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the
Boston Public Library, the Newberry Library in Chicago, Ill., and the
Sterling Memorial Library at Yale.

Although the institutions have filed victim impact reports with the
court, the British Library, represented by attorney Robert E. Goldman of
Philadelphia, Pa., is the only institution so far to file a sentencing
memorandum with the court.

In the memorandum, dated Sept. 13, Mr. Goldman writes that the
British Library had discovered the theft of the Apian map and Mr.
Smiley's commission of the crime before, and independent of, Mr.
Smiley's cooperation with federal authorities.

"The British Library was in the process of recovering the map
from an American dealer when it was taken into possession" by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Goldman writes.

The sentencing memorandum lists three reasons that the court should
sentence Mr. Smiley more severely. They are:

* That Mr. Smiley stole not just from one victim, but from
seven public and private libraries.

* That Mr. Smiley was engaged in a pattern of misconduct. As
Mr. Goldman writes elsewhere in the memorandum, "The case of
United States v. Smiley has made painfully clear that Smiley created his
marketplace and built his inventory through the systematic looting of
the world's great libraries."

* That the economic loss does not fully account for the
seriousness of the offense.

Mr. Smiley's attorney, Mr. Reeve, has estimated that value of
the 97 maps at more than $3 million. Mr. Smiley faces claims of $1.8
million or more.

But in the sentencing memorandum, Mr. Goldman writes, "the
harm caused by Smiley transcends monetary loss. Objects significant to
British, American and world heritage have an intrinsic value beyond the
monetary worth set in the commercial market."

The world map produced by Peter Apian in 1520, Mr. Goldman writes,
is just one example of the exceptional nature of the maps stolen by Mr.
Smiley.

"This map was torn from a volume that was owned by Thomas
Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury," he writes. "The volume,
now absent the map, still bears his signature.

"Cranmer precipitated England's epoch-making break with
Rome by marrying King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn in 1533," Mr.
Goldman states. "After Henry, he was the most influential man in
early Tudor England. The volume shows that Cranmer took a lively
interest in geography.

"Thus, the Apian map represents Cranmer's image of the
world," he writes. "It demonstrates that he believed America
to be a separate continent discovered by Amerigo Vespucci and not, as
many still believed at that time, that it was part of Asia. This image
determined such advice as he gave the king and his ministers on matters
of overseas exploration."

After Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) burned Cranmer for his beliefs in
1556, the volume was taken into the Old Royal Library. Surviving the
centuries, the volume and map were presented by King George II to the
newly created British Museum in 1757 and passed on to the British
Library on its creation in 1973. There the map remained until stolen by
Mr. Smiley.

Indeed, the British Museum contends in a footnote to the memorandum
that Mr. Smiley stole three other maps of equal significance from the
museum. He only has admitted stealing the Apian map.

Yesterday, Mr. Goldman said that of the three maps, two are versions
of the Alexander map, one dating from the 1500s and the other from 1625.
The map is an early visualization of Nova Scotia and New England. The
third map, known as the Best map, dates from the late 1500s and shows
the legendary Northwest Passage. The map was taken from a tract, part of
the collection of King George III, which describes the voyages of
explorer Martin Frobisher.

The footnote formalizes the suspicion voiced earlier this summer by
British Library officials that Mr. Smiley had stolen more maps than he
admitted taking. A number of the other institutions also have found more
maps missing, and met with federal officials to discuss whether Mr.
Smiley might have been involved.

Expounding on the damage done by Mr. Smiley, Mr. Goldman writes,
"Like a drop of oil on a still pond, the number of his victims
spreads with time.

"Smiley's victims include students, scholars, academics,
the general public and individuals not yet to be born who will not have
the opportunity to sit at a desk, open a leather-bound volume, and see
the world as Archbishop Cranmer and others saw it in the 16th
century."

The more severe sentence requested by the library, Mr. Goldman
writes, is required given the facts of the case, the supporting law, and
the need to "deter others who may be inclined, as Smiley was, to
steal world treasures from public and private institutions."